New video shows another takedown of wheelchair student

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A second video has emerged allegedly showing an Oakland High School security guard abusing a student in a wheelchair, and a second guard will be placed on paid leave, authorities said Tuesday.

Marchell Mitchell, 23, has been fired and charged with child abuse for allegedly handcuffing, punching and dumping Francisco Martinez out of his wheelchair on May 18 in an incident that was captured on a school surveillance camera, said Troy Flint, Oakland Unified School District spokesman.

On Tuesday, school officials released a second video that captured another incident that happened moments earlier near an elevator. The video apparently shows Martinez slapping the hand of another guard, identified by the school district as Shalandra Cotton, before Mitchell angrily dumps the student sideways out of his chair and kicks him, authorities said.

Mitchell then drags Martinez into an elevator, where the confrontation continues outside of camera view.

Cotton will be placed on paid leave, effective Wednesday, as district officials investigate whether “there was some kind of negligence based on her passivity, initially not interfering,” Flint said.

The two guards were urging students who were running late to go to class when they encountered Martinez, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, officials said.

Mitchell told Martinez to move toward his next class, but the student “either refused to comply or was slow to do so,” Principal Matin Abdel-Qawi wrote in a letter to parents.

After the incident near the elevator, Mitchell handcuffed Martinez and continued to roll him, and the student turned around in his wheelchair and spat in Mitchell’s face, authorities said. The video of the incident can be seen below:

“The security officer then struck the student several times before dumping him from his wheelchair onto the floor, at which time another security officer intervened to restrain his partner,” Abdel-Qawi wrote.

Oakland schools police investigated the incident and arrested Mitchell. Alameda County prosecutors have charged him with inflicting corporal injury to a child, a felony. He is free on $10,000 bail and is to appear in Superior Court in Oakland on June 16.

The Oakland Unified School District, which had hired him in November as a substitute security guard, fired him the day of the incident, Flint said.

“I’m shocked and deeply hurt by this behavior and apologize on behalf of the staff at Oakland High,” the principal wrote. “This incident is not reflective of the kind of culture we cherish at our school or how we treat one another.”

He added, “It was an aberration, but a severe one, and I assure you I’m treating this with the utmost concern.”